Setting the stage for Bangarra

Percy Jackonia was a dancer, teacher, mentor, role model, story teller and a founding member of the Bangarra Dance Theatre.

He was born on January 21, 1956, on Thursday Island, one of seven children to Jimmy Jackonia and his wife, Joy (nee Uiduldam). In the 1870s, Percy's great-grandfather (Yallah Tanna), from Tanna in Vanuatu, was blackbirded to Queensland where thousands of Pacific islanders were forced to work as labourers. At the beginning of the 20th century, Yallah Tanna and his brother settled in the Torres Strait. Yallah's son was Jackonia Yallah and with this the Jackonia name was born.

Joy's mother, aka Kitty Brown, and her siblings were removed from their Aboriginal mother because their father was non-Aboriginal. They scattered to Torres Strait and Western Australia.

Percy grew up happily in his large family but things were also tough because Jimmy was away for long periods, working in the pearling industry, and there was discrimination - Percy and the other children were caned at school for speaking ''language'' and restricted to the unseated and uncovered area at the picture theatre. As a teenager, Percy moved with Jimmy and later the rest of the family to Gordonvale near Cairns for schooling and better opportunities. Percy lasted only one day at school - being the only indigenous student in a white school was too much so he left, and worked on farms until the day he discovered a snake in the banana bunch he was carrying.

He then worked as a lab technician in the sugar mills for several years before, at 25, moving to Sydney and enrolling in the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre , established in Glebe a few years earlier by Carole Johnson. Although Jackonia had no previous formal dance training, he revelled in the opportunity to learn tap, jazz, modern, ballet, various Aboriginal dance styles as well as learning and teaching traditional Torres Strait Island dance.

The college was rudimentary and many classes were held in Foley Park across the street, no matter what the weather. Jackonia had no money but nothing stopped him getting to school - he simply walked, often from as far as Gladesville.

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However, with the growing success of the dance theatre came tours to the US , Germany, Finland, Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand and a performance for the Prince and Princess of Wales at the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations.

In 1989, Jackonia and other dancers were founding dancers of the Bangarra Dance Theatre.

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Despite a burgeoning career, commitment to family took precedence and at the end of 1990, Jackonia returned to Cairns to care for his mother. He stayed until she died in 1997 and then on until the end of 2002.

In Cairns, Jackonia started working at Parramatta State School where, along with his former dance theatre colleague Wayne Nichols, he set up the Aboriginal and Islander Dance Groups. Soon there were annual cultural festivals with dance competitions that attracted entrants from schools in Cape York, the Torres Strait and even PNG. The groups continue now under the guidance of Jackonia's sister Kitty.

Jackonia was invited by Stephen Page, the artistic director of the indigenous segment of the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony, to participate and he led about 80 Torres Strait Islanders into the arena and wowed the worldwide audience.

In late 2002, Jackonia returned to Sydney to live and before long he was back at National Aboriginal Islanders Skills Development Association, where he worked until his recent retirement as a traditional dance teacher and mentor.

In 2001, after dogged persistence, the Western Australian side of Jackonia's grandmother's family was found and there was a reunion in Cairns. In 2009, he found the other side of his family. A year later, he was welcomed to his great-grandfather's ancestral village in Vanuatu.

Jackonia was recently honoured at the Australian Dance Awards and was the first recipient of the NAISDA Life Achievement and Life Member Award.

Percy Jackonia is survived by his partner of 26 years, Geoffrey Leeson, brother Alfred and sisters Edith, Kitty, Ellie and Dora.